Nonverbal communication conveys meaning through wordless messages like facial expressions, gestures, and body language. It plays a key role in first impressions and can complement, emphasize, or contradict spoken communication. Nonverbal signals can be ambiguous since the same gesture can have different meanings depending on context, and different signals can convey the same meaning. Factors like proximity, touching, eye contact and posture are used to express feelings like liking, status, and responsiveness. Kinesics studies bodily movements like gestures and postures that also display emotions. Proxemics examines human use of interpersonal space and distance.

1. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
MARIA SUBERT

2. DEFINING NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
 Nonverbal communication is the
process of using wordless messages
to generate meaning.
 Includes nonword vocalizations.

3. ELECTRONIC FORMS OF COMMUNICATION
People who communicate
through electronic forms
of communication
invented to communicate
feelings
and emotions by using
emoticons.

4. MANY OF OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OCCUR NONVERBALLY

5. NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION WORK
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE WORDS
By using them, we
 repeat
 emphasize
 complement
 contradict
 substitute our words
and regulate our interactions with others.

6. REGULATING
Regulating: using nonverbal codes to
monitor and control our interactions,
For example, you look away when
someone is talking to you.

7. AMBIGUITY
The ambiguity of non-verbal communication
occurs for two reasons:
First, the same code can communicate many meanings.
(Touching the other’s nose mean different things between father and his
baby, two lovers, or fighting teenagers.)

8. AMBIGUITY
 On the other hand,
variety of codes can
communicate the same meaning.
(Think of the different forms of greetings.)

9. NONVERBAL CODES:
 Nonword vocalizations
 bodily movements
 facial expressions
 physical attraction
 use of space
 use of time
 Touch
 and clothing.

10. KINESICS
Kinesics: the study of bodily movements such as
 posture
 gesture
 facial expressions.

11. LIKING
We express liking by
 forward leaning
 direct body orientation
 close proximity
 increased touching
 relaxed posture
 open arms and body
 positive facial expression
 and direct eye contact.

12. STATUS
High status is communicated by
bigger gestures,
relaxed posture,
and less eye-contact.

13. RESPONSIVENESS
Responsiveness: expressed by
movement toward the other
person,
spontaneous gestures,
shift in posture and position,
and facial expressions.

14. MOVEMENT
 Eckman categorized movement as emblems,
illustrators, affect displays, regulators and
adaptors.

15. EMBLEMS & ILLUSTRATORS
 Emblems: nonverbal movements
that substitute for words and phrases
(such as beckoning first finger to mean “come here”)
 Illustrators: nonverbal movements
that accompany or reinforce verbal messages
(Shaking your fist when saying “Get out of here!”)

16. AFFECT DISPLAY & REGULATORS
 Affect display: nonverbal movements of the
face and body used to show emotions.
 Regulators: movements that
control the flow or pace of communication
(looking away when you are not interested)

17. ADAPTORS
Adaptors:
Nonverbal movements that you might perform fully in private
but only partially in public.

18. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS & BODILY MOVEMENT
Facial expressions are important in
conveying information to others and
in learning how others are feeling.
Bodily movement and orientation
add to that information by
suggesting how intense the feeling
might be.

19. PHYSICALLY ATTRACTION
 People who are physically attractive
are privileged over those who are
not physically attractive.
This bias is stronger for women that for men

20. PROXEMICS: THE STUDY OF HUMAN USE OF SPACE AND
DISTANCE

21. TERRITORIALITY:
Territoriality:
 the need to establish and
 maintain certain spaces as your own.

22. PERSONAL SPACE
Personal space:
 the personal “bubble” that moves around with you.
 The distance you maintain between you and the others.
Men tend to take more space, women less.

23. CHRONEMICS: TEMPORAL COMMUNICATION
 Chronemics:
The way people organize and use time
and the messages related to it.
 Monochromic people make one task at a time
 Polychronic people work on several tasks at a time

24. TACTILE COMMUNICATION
 Tactile communication is the
use of touch in communication.
 Insufficient amount of
touching can lead
to health disorders

25. VOCAL CUES: NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION INCLUDES
SOME SOUNDS, AS LONG THEY ARE NOT WORDS
 Vocal cues or vocalic communication consist of
pitch (highest and lowest of one’s voice)
rate (how rapid or slow you speak)
inflection (variety or changes in pitch)

26. MORE VERBAL CUES
volume (loudness or softness of your voice)
quality (huskiness, nasality, raspiness or whininess),
nonword sounds (mm, huh, ahh)
pronunciation Saying the word correctly),
articulation (coordinating the mouth, tongue ant teeth to
make a word understandable)

27. … AND MORE VERBAL CUES
enunciation (combining articulation and pronunciation to
produce a word with clarity)
silence (lack of sound).
See Nonverbal Communication: Vocal Cues and Facial Expressions at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrJMVK6O2GI